Past and Present
by TrayC
Summary: Something had happened to Stephanie years ago. She leaves Trenton to and goes to L.A. to finish things up, but then, she got dragged into Ranger and Joe's investigation.
1. Present

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Janet's characters. And the club name is totally made up. If there is a club by that name, it is an accident.

Author's Note: I never finish any of my stories. Hopefully I would this time. D  
Author's Second Note: I want to focus this story on the Present, so I'm going to be vague on the Past.

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**Prologue**

It was raining as I drove out of Trenton. The thunder struck hard. It was 3 in the morning, when everyone was asleep, where no one saw me leaving. But no one would care. Even if they did, they would only care about their betting pools or the latest gossip about me.

Morrelli and I have been in an on-again-off-again relationship for two years already. We were going to get married but we didn't. Maybe we weren't meant to be together.

Ranger loves me, but _in his own way_. Only God knows what that means. He had told me that he didn't do relationships. Maybe we weren't meant to be together either.

But now isn't the time to think about them. Right now, I have a mission at hand.


	2. Past

As I drove out of Trenton, I thought about my past and how it all had happened to me. It all started like this:

**Chapter 1** (Fourteen Years Ago)

When I was 18, I got accepted to Princeton. Everything was going great and then I found Morrelli back in town. I was still hurt over the fact that he took my virginity when I was 16. So, I rammed him with the Buick. My mom found out of course and we had the worst argument ever.

"Stephanie Michelle Plum! Young lady, how dare you hit that Morrelli boy with the Buick? You broke his leg! Does Elliot's daughter go off and ram boys with her car? Does Margie's daughter go and break people's legs? The answer is no, and do you know why? That's because they are acting like respectable citizens and are well-mannered daughters! What will the neighbors think? They have such nice daughters and what do I get? A daughter that acts like a monkey by jumping off of the garage roof! I am so ashamed of you! What am I going to say when the neighbors ask? This is even worst than the time at the Tasty Pastry! What were you thinking?"

I didn't say anything. I just kept staring at her while my emotions built up.

"Why do I have a daughter like you? The phone has been ringing off the hook! I couldn't even step out off this door! I am so embarrassed because of you!"

Being a teenager and emotionally distraught, I mouthed back. "Fine, if you're that ashamed of me, then I'm leaving right now for Princeton, and I won't be coming back, nor will I ever call home!"

I heard a gasp as I ran upstairs to grab my luggage.

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As I walked the deserted street, I mentally kicked myself for acting so stupid. I didn't have a plane ticket, so I couldn't get out of Trenton and I was so angry that I didn't know where I was driving to. I was lost. I had been driving for two hours on a big road already but I couldn't ask anyone for help because there was no one in sight. I muttered some pretty colorful words as I ran out of gas. I walked around for half an hour hoping to find a signal for my cell phone but no such luck. Just then, I saw an expensive looking car coming my way. The windows were tinted so I couldn't see inside. The car rolled to a stop beside me as the windows rolled down.

"What's a pretty lady like you doing in a dark deserted road like this?" said the driver. His eyes were almost black and looked as though they were piercing through my soul. His hair was short and black and overall, I couldn't say he was ugly, a bit attractive but something about him felt cold.

"I got lost and my car ran out of fuel. To top it off, I can't get a signal on my cell phone."

"Honey, nobody can get a signal out here. Climb in; I'll drive you to a motel."

"Well… I don't exactly have any money on me for a night at a motel." That was another stupid mistake of mine for not bringing money.

"Don't worry little lady, I'll take care of it. Are you gonna get into the car are or you just gonna stand there?"

"Thanks." Getting into the car was the biggest mistake of my life. Not only did he not take me to a motel, but he imprisoned me for 8 months. I will never forget all the torture that they had inflicted on me.


	3. Still Past

**Chapter 2** (Imprisoned)

I wasn't the only one that was a prisoner. I was constantly chained inside a cell. I shared a cell with 4 other girls. I knew there were more because I had constantly heard them screaming as they were tortured. Their screams had pierced through my soul. After two days, a fifth girl was brought into my cell. Surprisingly, she was my half sister, Alexia Ann Trate.

You see, when my mom was pregnant with me, the no sex thing made my dad hang out with his buddies more often, which meant more drinking. Unfortunately, he went overboard once and went home with a girl at a bar. He had no feelings for her but he did pay her child fee every month. Eventually, my mom forgave him, but I suspect that it because he was the only source of income she had. I guess she got over it eventually.

Under normal circumstances, I would be glad to see her, but I wasn't. She was to have the same fate as me.

_I woke up feeling dizzy. I shook my head a few times before I noticed that my hands were chained to the wall. Where am I, I thought, the last thing I remember is getting into the car…_

_The guy that picked me up was standing right in front of me. "You're awake. I was starting to think you were going to sleep all day," he said with a smile. "My name is Jack Daniels. Yours?"_

"_S-S-Stephanie Plum…W-where am I? What am I d-doing here?"_

"_Oh Steph, you should know better than to get into cars with strangers. You might not encounter someone as nice as me next time," he said with a wink. "Do you know what I do for a living?" I shook my head. "I didn't think so. You see, I sell women. And my customers are always happy with what I present to them. Part of my job is to make sure the woman behave," he said as he lifted my face with his hand._

"_NO!" I screamed at him. "Please let me go!"_

_He laughed. "How come all you woman always ask me to let you guys go? Do you actually think that I would?" Then his face turned cold. "If you don't behave, there will be consequences. Understood?"_

_I nodded._

Everyone of the woman had been raped. Including me and each of us had been through it many times. Too many to count. Eight months later, we decided to break out. We lived in the imprisonment camp long enough to know their schedules. The guards switch duties every 5 hours. Jack hasn't seen us that much lately, so that can only mean one thing: he was bored with us. There were only two ways that it would play out. One was for him to kill us and two was for him to sell us for others to torture us. Neither was an option for me and the other woman. There was only one guard that came and brought us our food. I faked a faint and the guard took of my chains to check me. I grabbed his stun gun and stunned him. Then the other girls and I ran for the forests. We didn't split up so we could protect each other, but then hundreds of guards would be all over the place soon looking for us because the alarm had rung.

Fate had stood on our side because then we saw a boat… more like a ship. Then we all climbed on and hid. A minute later, the ship started sailing and shots were fired. After about ten minutes, the shots stopped. We had gotten away.

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From that moment on, my old life had ended and my new life had just begun. The private ship we boarded belonged to a woman in her fifties called Margaret Simmons. We told her what happened and not only did she take us in, she changed us completely.


	4. Back to the Present

**Chapter 3** (Explanations and Introductions)

I am no longer Stephanie Plum, Bombshell Bounty Hunter Extraordinaire, but Jessica Marriott, the 30 year-old owner of one-third of a night club called Ice. I am 5"9, blue eyes, half Italian, half Hungarian and have dark brown hair with light brown highlights on my wavy and almost straight hair. I have two best friends called Marissa and Andrea. Marissa is 5"7 with dark brown eyes and a red head with straight hair. She is American and the second owner of Ice. Andrea is 5"10 with light brown eyes and straight blonde hair. She is also American and the third owner of Ice. Marissa and Andrea had been in the same cell as me back when we were held in the imprisonment camp. No one else knows what had happened to us besides Margaret. Currently, I am living under her roof, working for her as was Marissa and Andrea.

Margaret was an assassin who worked for the government. She helped us recover when she found out what had happened to us. Lisa and Heather had also been in the same cell as us and escaped with us. Unfortunately, Lisa couldn't accept what happened to her and decided to take the easy way out. She had slit her wrists and I was the one who found her body. I don't know if Heather's fate was any better. She couldn't accept what had happened to her either, and broke down after she heard the news about Lisa. Currently, she's in a mental institution. Till this day, I always thought of my little sister, Alexia. Sometimes, I wished that I could trade places with her because she didn't deserve what she got in the end. She'll be in my heart forever, I love her dearly. It still saddens me that only me, Margaret, Marissa, and Andrea knows what ha happened to her. Alexia didn't deserve what she got. I made a vow to myself that I will kill that bastard. And make him suffer as he did to Alexia and us.

Margaret had trained me, Alexia, Marissa and Andrea. Not to be assassins, but to be able to survive in the world. And once in a while, we had helped in some government investigations. Margaret had taught us how breaking and entering, lock picking, bomb disarming, weapons, armory, self-defense, disarming opponents, and how to fight. She had also taught us five different languages; French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese) and Hebrew. I thought that French, Italian, and Spanish were reasonable, but had complained about learning Hebrew because it isn't common at all. I had stopped complaining when she told me that we have to learn it because it was uncommon so we can talk to each other in Hebrew without the enemy knowing what we are planning.

Have I ever killed anyone on purpose? The answer is yes, many times. Sometimes, it scares me that by pulling a little trigger, someone's life would end immediately and their importance would be gone and I am the one who did it. But when I think of what had happened to Alexia, I knew that they had deserved it, torturing people, ruining the lives of the victim and the victim's family and friends.

Right now, I was sitting in my office in Los Angelesreading the file of the target in my next mission. My heart stopped pounding after I opened it.

NAME: Jack Daniels  
DATE OF BIRTH: November 16, 1967  
AGE: 39  
EYE COLOR: Dark Brown  
WEIGHT (lbs): 203  
HEIGHT: 74in. (6"2)  
RACE: Australian  
SKIN COLOR: White  
HAIR: Short  
HAIR COLOR: Blonde  
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS: None  
OFFENSES:  
--Rape (Suspect)  
--1st Degree Murder (Suspect)  
--Drug Dealing (Suspect)  
--Imprisoning Women (Suspect)  
--Assault (Suspect)  
--Illegal Shipping/Selling Women (Suspect)  
FAMILY: None  
BACKGROUND: N/A

I looked up from the file and out the window. It was a full moon tonight. I remember staring up at the moon every night for eight months waiting to be saved when he imprisoned me. Jack Daniels is going to pay.


	5. Guess Who?

**Chapter 4** (Expect the Unexpected)

It's been a month since I left Trenton. Jack Daniels is holding a gathering at his house tonight. Margaret had called us and told us to get to his computer and get a switch his hard drive with an empty one. I am going as a guest while Marissa and Andrea will be waitresses serving the guests. Andrea will be the ones to get to his computer and Marissa would be outside the room making sure no one enters. When they are finished, they would pass the hard drive to me. There would be cameras, so Marissa would have to rewire it, but it would only be a matter of time before Jack finds out. He wouldn't dare to search the guests and risk insulting them. However, he would definitely be searching the waiters/waitresses.

I went into my walk-in closet and tried to decide on which dress to pick. I finally settled on a long black halter top dress. It was really low showing a lot of cleavage and there was a split that went all the way up to the top of me thigh. Also, the back was bare, so I couldn't wear a bra. I put my hair up into a French twist and let a few strands of hair hang loose. I painted my nails and toe nails light pink and added some pink eye shadow and lipstick. For jewelry, I had long dangling diamond earrings and a diamond bracelet. To finish it off, I put on four inch high black FMP shoes and grabbed my black Coach handbag.

I parked my black Lexus and looked at Jack Daniels' house. I think the more appropriate term would've been mansion. That place was huge!

A guy standing at the door stopped me and asked, "Hello. May I have your invitation please?" I handed him my fake invitation. "Thank you. You may go in. Have a nice time."

I went in and scanned the area. This looked more like a formal ball than a gathering to me. Just then, I saw Jack pick a rose from a vase and started coming towards me. My heart started beating fast thinking that he might have recognized me.

"A lady as beautiful as a rose shouldn't go unnoticed." I let go of my breathe that I didn't even realize I was holding as he gave me the rose. That bastard doesn't recognize me.

"But you should never forget that a rose has thorns which can be pretty dangerous."

He laughed and said, "Then you should know that I'm a dangerous man too."

"I'm Jessica." I held out my hand.

"Jack Daniels at your service." Instead of shaking it, he took my hand and kissed it. Then he smiled and said, "I would love to continue talking to you but then I would be neglecting my other guests. He walked away. I turned around and bump into a brick wall. I looked up into the face of a very familiar man. That man was none other than Ricardo Carlos Manoso. He was wearing a white tuxedo and his hair was short. _OMIGOD, Batman cut his hair!_

"Babe." Crap, he recognizes me.

"Your blue eyes are hard to forget." Margaret hadn't taught me ESP, but she did teach me how to control my facial expressions to keep people from reading me like a book.

"Hey Ranger, what brings you here?" I asked in my sweetest tone.

"It's Ric. I'm working." That got me curious. I hope we aren't both after Daniels.

"Are you going after an FTA?"

"No." Crap, please don't tell me that he got assigned Daniel's case.

I walked over to the corner of the room near the kitchen. I was suppose to be meeting Andrea there to retrieve the hard drive. Unfortunately, _Ric_ had followed me.

"What are you doing here, babe?"

"Standing?" I looked at him innocently hoping he'd leave me alone.

"Babe."

"You cut your hair." I was trying to change the subject, but all he did was stare at me. I grabbed a cocktail from a waiter and downed it in gulp.

"Why can't I be here?" I snapped at him. He has no right to know what I do.

He backed me to the wall and growled in my ear. "There are some dangerous people here, babe. The last thing you need is to attract them."

Just then, Andrea came towards me. She looked at Ric and raised an eyebrow. There was no way for her to give me the disk without him seeing. Just then, I saw Jack going to each waiter/waitress and pointed to the kitchen. Crap, he must've found out, that was quick. I nodded to Andrea. Ric raised his eyebrow at me when he saw the disk but said nothing. I placed the hard drive into my purse and headed for the door. Ric just followed. I opened the car door and was about to get in when he spoke.

"Babe, get in my car. I want to show you some people."

"Why? Where are we going?" As I said this, I took the hard drive and dumped it into the drivers seat of my car. My actions were light and my hands were blocked by my car, so he didn't notice.

"If you want to know why I'm here, then get in." I was curious, so I had no choice but to go with him.

He drove me to a warehouse which seemed as if it was located middle of nowhere. When I stepped inside, I was shocked. _What the hell are **they** doing here!_


End file.
